Lorde scraps Israel concert amid boycott calls

By ILAN BEN ZIONDecember 25, 2017

FILE - In this April 16, 2017, file photo, Lorde performs at Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Lorde's "Melodrama" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the year on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Lorde has cancelled a performance in Israel scheduled for next summer after appeals by pro-Palestinian activists. The New Zealand musician said in a statement Sunday that "the right decision at this time" was to cancel her June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv, which was announced earlier this month. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this April 16, 2017, file photo, Lorde performs at Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Lorde's "Melodrama" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the year on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Lorde has cancelled a performance in Israel scheduled for next summer after appeals by pro-Palestinian activists. The New Zealand musician said in a statement Sunday that "the right decision at this time" was to cancel her June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv, which was announced earlier this month. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Lorde on Sunday cancelled a performance in Israel scheduled for next summer after appeals by pro-Palestinian activists.

The New Zealand music star said in a statement that “the right decision at this time” was to cancel her June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv, which was announced earlier this month.

Her announcement followed calls by proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to cancel her performance over Israel’s human rights record. Lorde joins artists including Roger Waters, Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello in boycotting Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

Lorde said that after having “lots of discussions” about the matter, “I’m not too proud to admit I didn’t make the right call on this one,” referring to her initial decision to hold the concert.

Lorde’s cancellation was welcomed by members of the BDS movement. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel posted a statement on Twitter thanking the artist for “heeding appeals from your fans against Israel’s art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians.”

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev said she hoped Lorde would reconsider her decision. “Lorde, I expect you to be a pure heroine, like the title of your first album, a pure culture hero, free of any external — and if I may add, delusional — political considerations,” Regev said in a statement.